Dozens of police vehicles descended on the shopping mall at around 2pm (local time) after reports of "five or six shots" fired.

It is not clear how many people have been injured or killed in the incident in The Northlake Mall in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Shopping mall worker Jasmine told Fox News there were about five or six gunshots.

Employees at Aldo where Jasmine works immediately closed the store gate and went into the back room.

Security guards later told the group to evacuate, Jasmine said.

"There was one armed subject that was shot during the altercation and he was pronounced deceased on scene by Medic. No officers were injured during this shooting," police spokesman Keith Trietley said in a statement.

Traumatic: woman crouches behind a mall sign in shock after the mall shooting that left Christmas shoppers screaming https://t.co/UoSSHGeEsX

The mall has been secured with no continuing threat, said Jeff Keith, deputy director of the Mecklenburg Emergency Medical Services Agency.

"With all the things that have occurred in this country in the past couple of years, we want to assure people that this is an isolated, specific event, not of any random nature," he said, without commenting on the reports of the death.